BTRT Patterns (on Etsy)

Today we took a spur of the moment trip to a wildlife rehab and rescue center that makes its living as an attraction in the summer, allowing you to see animals native to our region in natural habitats. It is a neat little place and every animal has a (sad) story about how they arrived at the center ~ their arrival generally being the high point of their lives. Whether begun as movie stars or orphans due to accidents or human malice, each animal is no longer able to survive in the wild but is given this opportunity to live as normal a life as possible in a safe and nurturing natural setting.

There was the toothless beaver (trap that killed his mother crushed his face); the movie castoff moose; the descented epileptic skunk and the 4 crippled bald eagles. It sort of felt like a trip to the Island of Misfit Toys! But the animals are obviously loved and respected and their habitats are wonderful. Add in lovely trails for humans and a face to face encounter with our local wildlife and it is a fabulous resource we hope to make more use of for learning about animals.

Rowan really enjoyed seeing the animals and it was so much fun to see her become aware of the SCALE of the creatures we read about in books. She kept commenting on the big ears of the moose but we had a hard time convincing her that the bobcat (actively stalking squirrels from inside his home) was *not* like our neighbour's 'Samkitty'. After a while, she became more intrigued with the large slabs of granite that made up much of the terrain (this kid has a total rock fascination, but that is another tale) than the animals, but overall it was an excellent outing for us all.

A couple highlights included Rowan's very kind questioning of the dozing-in-the-sun-wolverines (yes, those ferocious little critters) if they 'want puppy taggie??'~ to translate, if they would like her loveys to snuggle with for their nap! She then proceeded to pick up leaves to feed to the COUGAR. Calling softly and liltingly 'come over cougar and eat leaves!' while the cougar looked at her (not the leaves) with a glint in his eye. Yikes! And finally was the tumble down the incline on her bottom, landing at the feet of a group of french tourists. She jumped up and started calling 'kiss it! kiss it!' as she held her bottom and ran to me ~ someone translated and the whole group roared and watched to see if I would comply (I settled for a kiss on the head and it sufficed).

Life is never dull with two year old! God bless her precious little bottom and kind heart!